Yahoo Delete URL Feature Disaster Waiting to Happen

The feature I am most interested in and also worried about is the new “delete URL” feature. It is literally a disaster waiting to happen. There is zero verification other than being logged into the proper Yahoo account to delete an entire site from the Yahoo index.

With Google you are required to upload a robots.txt file to the webserver that verifies the same information being requested through the Google delete URL/Site tool. With Yahoo, you just log in, click delete, click confirm, and it’s gone.

Until they fix this issue I recommend to everyone that you don’t authenticate any domain to Yahoo Site Explorer and if you have previously authenticated a site that you remove the authentication file or meta tag. If this loop hole is not fixed it’s only a matter of time before webmasters start waking up to entire sites missing from the Yahoo index. Yahoo accounts are too accessible to phishing and hack attempts to be the only barrier for such a powerful tool.

We regularly recheck that a site has the user’s authentication file present every few days. If ever we realize that the authentication file is removed we reverse all actions that were taken by that account. Hence, if your userid is ever compromised, immediately remove your authentication key from your site to undo any unwanted actions on Site Explorer. This is also documented in the Site Explorer Help http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/siteexplorer/siteexplorer-49.html (refer note at the bottom).